Labour supremos launch anyone but Mandy campaign

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

3/16/05, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:28 PM CET

News reaches EN that senior UK ministers, led by deputy premier John Prescott and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have joined forces to block the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s next commissioner.

They are, it seems, pressing Tony Blair to accept former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, or current defence chief Geoff Hoon, as alternatives rather than see Blair give the post to his friend and ally.

For his part, Mandelson says he hasn’t discussed the possibility with anyone in government and dismissed “the usual speculation and tittle-tattle” in the media.

“I am very committed to representing my constituents in Hartlepool,” Mandelson said, adding he saw no reason why anyone should “want to pack me off to Brussels”.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …